


And Softly Falls the Rain

by Maggie_GoldenStar1530



Series: Dar'Manda One Shots [2]
Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, fluffy af, soft fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:07:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23531323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maggie_GoldenStar1530/pseuds/Maggie_GoldenStar1530
Summary: It was a week after they took down the AT-ST that there was finally a rainstorm.The village had been expecting it- it rarely went longer than two weeks between bouts of rain, and that morning everyone could tell that there was a storm coming.Rain brings frogs, and feelings. Someone isn't quite clear that he's a parent yet.
Relationships: Baby Yoda & The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)
Series: Dar'Manda One Shots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1753318
Comments: 6
Kudos: 149





	And Softly Falls the Rain

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the Dar'Manda Series. You don't need to have read all of that of that for these stories to make sense, but these exist within that universe.

It was a week after they took down the AT-ST that there was finally a rainstorm. 

The village had been expecting it- it rarely went longer than two weeks between bouts of rain, and that morning everyone could tell that there was a storm coming. The air smelled heavy and earthy. 

The Kid had never smelled anything like it, or if he had, he couldn’t remember. He’d been kept cooped up in his pod, and this was the first time he’d been able to spend time moving about, stretching his legs, as his Protector said. 

(And the frogs! They were so delicious in this place! Fresh and juicy and tiny bit fishy, The other frogs, in the hot place, were stringy and dusty tasting. Good, but nothing like these frogs.) 

The smell was strange. Not unpleasant, but odd. He didn’t understand, and everyone seemed to be busy moving things inside and bustling around. Even Winta was busy and didn’t have time to play. His Protector and the Strong Woman helped the grown ups, and no one seemed to have time to spend with him.

That was fine. He was used to being by himself. 

He usually hadn’t been able to just wander about by himself, though. The village was small, unless you were only a foot and a half tall. There were plenty of places to explore. He wandered around, poking under houses and wandering about the ponds. 

He stayed away from the edges, though. He’d seen the grown ups in the water, but he’d never, to his knowledge, been  _ in _ water. He didn’t know what to do about it, so he ignored it. On his Protector’s ship, there was a room where they could get clean, but it involved weird sounds. 

Winta had said something about a “bath” once. He didn’t know what that was. 

Sometime in the middle of the day, he got hungry, but everyone was still very busy, and there weren’t any frogs to be found, much to his disappointment. He wandered to the edge of the village, hoping that there more frogs out there, but there were none. 

The sky got darker, and it got colder, and he was tired. And hungry. He curled up in an empty basket and tried to go to sleep. 

He was used to being alone.

Din finished helping get things put away and secured for the storm. The village had been in various stages of disarray since they defeated the raiders, and everyone had sort of put off putting things to rights until it became an absolute necessity. Then it was all hands on deck. Some roofs needed repairs. The barricades had things that needed to be undercover, and some of the krill ponds needed to be reinforced to prevent collapse. Everyone worked hard and fast, even the children were set to fetching and carrying and helping everywhere they could.

It wasn’t until the sky got dark as the rain rolled in that he realized he hadn’t seen the Kid for  _ hours _ . 

He went to the barn where Omera had again thoughtfully placed some food, but there was no Kid there. He frowned to himself and thought back. When had he last seen him? 

No, it had been hours. Hours and hours. 

His first instinct was to go find Omera and ask her for help, but that would mean admitting that he hadn’t kept an eye on the Kid, which he should have done, or asked someone. He took a deep breath, and flicked on the infra-red scanner in his helmet. If he couldn’t find him with a quick scan, then he’d ask for help. 

Far on the edges of the village, he saw a small heat signature curled up in a basket, and tried to ignore the sense of deep relief he felt. This was maybe more than a  _ job _ , but feelings? Gross. He went and looked into the basket, just as the rain started. There was the Kid, curled into a ball and looking miserable, ears flat against his head.

Din sighed to himself. He should have made a better- hell, any- effort to make sure the Kid was being looked after. But things got so busy so quickly. “Sorry, womp rat. I’m not.. Good at this.” 

At the sound of his voice, the Kid looked up, and his ears raised a fraction. Din reached down to pick him up, and the Kid willingly raised his arms. “At least you don’t carry a grudge.” 

The Kid was both surprised and very happy to see his Protector. He came to find him, and he wasn’t angry! He was just kind of sad, but mostly he was tired. They started to head back to the barn as the rain started to come down in earnest, and the Kid stared up at the sky, mouth open in wonder. He looked around- this was new. 

He opened his mouth, and tasted it- it was good! And…. AND-

Frogs were out. Frogs were coming out all over the place! 

He started to struggle to get down, and after three steps of trying to keep the Kid from falling out of his arms, Din gave up and put him down gently. The Kid ran after a frog, and slurped it down. Din felt like maybe he should put a stop to this, like, maybe this wasn’t the ideal thing for a Kid to eat. Shouldn’t they be cleaned or something? Cooked? 

Kids were weird. This Kid was super weird.

After the Kid inhaled a third frog, Din had sudden visions of waking in the middle of the night to find that the Kid had thrown up whole frogs all over the crib, his bedding, the barn, himself, and knowing his luck, Din. He scooped him up, despite the protests. “That’s enough.” 

The Kid pouted to himself. Who knew when there would be frogs again?

Once in the barn, Din sighed to himself. The Kid was awake, which meant he’d have to wait until bedtime to eat. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time. He put the Kid down in the crib, and the Kid whined. 

“What?”

The Kid pointed outside. Din shook his head. The Kid sighed, and pointed outside again. 

“You want to go in the rain again?” Din shrugged to himself. Sure, why not. They had dry blankets. 

The rain was warm and gentle so far, and the Kid just stood, staring up. His little shapeless coat was getting completely soaked, but he didn’t care. The sensation was surprisingly pleasant. He looked down at the puddle growing in front of him, and frowned to himself. He glanced back at Din, uncertainly, and then took a tentative step into it. 

The mud squished around his toes and he pulled back to stare at it. That was interesting. He stepped forward again. It was like the dirt around the krill ponds, but even squishier. He knelt down to pat at it with his hands.

He thought he heard a sigh behind him, but ignored it.

He tried jumping in the puddle, and looked back at his Protector to see if he’d seen how big a splash that made. His Protector didn’t make any sort of reaction that he could see, but the Kid could tell he’d smiled a little. So he jumped in the puddle again, and again, and again. 

The rain got colder, and the Kid turned to go back inside. He was tired, and cold, and wet, and while he’d never been wet like this before (that he could remember), he was tired of it.

Din picked him up, took off the muddy, filthy coat, wrapped him up in a dry blanket, and on seeing the Kid make a big yawn, gently placed him in the crib. The sound of the rain on the roof was soothing, the Kid was warm, and he had a full belly, and he was safe. 

That was something. 

Late that night, the rain turned into a full-fledged thunderstorm. Din woke up to a sound of muffled whimpering. The Kid was cowered in the corner of the crib, cringing at the non-stop lightning and thunder.

_ Oh. _ Din put it all together. The Kid had acted like he’d never seen rain before. Which meant that he’d never seen a thunderstorm before. And the last time… no, Din amended. The last three times that he knew of where the Kid had heard loud booms, it hadn’t been a good thing at all.  _ And those are just the times you know about, and those were all in the past two weeks. Who knows how many firefights this Kid has been in the middle of? _

He remembered being scared of explosions, too. 

He picked up the Kid, and cuddled the Kid to his unarmored chest. “It’s okay.” He murmured. “Morut’yc. That means safe. You’re safe.” 

  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
